"Tree's: Importance,Significance & protection"

What is a Tree?

A tree is a large, woody, long lived and shedding organism. Trees produce food from sunlight hitting their leaves (photosynthesis). This food is then transported through the branches and the roots where it is burned up in the same way we use food (respiration). Underneath the ground a tree has large woody roots which spread out. These roots are merely underground branches. At the end of these roots are small absorbing (non woody) roots. These absorbing roots, often little more than fine hairs, take up water and nutrients. When something goes wrong or alters quickly around your tree, the tree goes into "stress". Often this stress is not even visible, but frequently it will require the use of large amounts of stored energy. Stress is reversible. However, when stress occurs for extended periods of time or is extreme, your tree is damaged permanently (strained). Strain also uses large amounts of energy, but because the injury is permanent the use of energy may extend for many, many years.

Significance of Tree:

Trees are natures air conditioners. In one year the average tree inhales 26 pounds of carbon dioxide, the amount emitted by a car on an 11,000 mile trip. This same tree will in turn exhale enough oxygen to keep a family of 4 breathing for a year. Your trees treat the carbon dioxide they take in. The foliage uses the carbon in the gas to make sugars and starches. The leftover oxygen is released back into the air. We could not sit here today and breathe the clean air we are breathing without our trees. Trees are the greatest collectors of the suns energy. All energy comes from the sun and our trees collect and store more of it than anything else in the world. The benefits of trees can be divided into two general areas. Direct benefits, such as cool from shade or increased property value and indirect benefits. Indirect benefits impact you, the tree owner and the community in real, but less tangible ways. In fact, indirect benefits from trees are more numerous than direct benefits. These benefits include filtration and absorption of air pollutants, reduced storm water run off, storing of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and beneficial impact on the general quality of life. Perhaps the greatest contribution our trees make is an emotional one. People who live in cities brighten up at the site of a tree, the scrawniest saplings challenging the concrete. Silently in our minds they rise as symbols of stability, dignity, adventure, comfort and knowledge. Maybe we should stop for a moment and wonder how many trees will be left for our children and grandchildren. As someone once said "Your family, your friends, your trees you take for granted you will always have these until you don't!

 

Let us share some thoughts with you. The miracle of trees.... they give us shade, beauty, the air we breathe. If we let them they could save our environment. Life without them is impossible, a day without seeing one is unimaginable. They give us shelter, air and tranquillity. Celebrate the miracle of trees. A people without children would face a hopeless future, a country with out trees is almost as hopeless. Trees can reduce the heat of a summers day, quiet a highways noise, feed the hungry, provide shelter from the wind and warmth in winter. Trees are the oldest living thing on earth and as such they have immense value.

Why to protect Tree? 

Unlike people, your trees don't heal. When a person is hurt they generate new tissue to fix or repair the problem. Trees on the other hand, simply produce new tissue that goes over the top. These giants are little trees that have grown a new tree on the outside every year it's been alive. Whatever damage we do to that tree stays there. Like people trees have a protective skin on the outside called bark. Just like with skin, bark helps keep bad things out and good things in. Your trees also have a structure for mechanical support just like we have muscles and bones. This structure is wood. It is more flexible than bone but less flexible than muscle. Trees also store food and other important things in wood. Trees don't get fat, but sometimes they can grow too fast. Trees can and often do die of starvation and trees can suffocate. When we damage the bark or the wood, the tree is being seriously hurt. Because the tree cannot heal, these injuries are permanent and often cause problems for many years. For this reason it is very important that we take care of the things that we do to and around our trees. A simple thing like a clip with a whipper snipper or even over watering the grass can have permanent and irreversible consequences on your tree.

How to Protect Tree?

A tree, when in it's most natural state would require little - if any specific care. But when taken from this environment or when the area is altered, we become the trees "mother nature". There are many things which can restrict the needs of our trees. Frequently we choose trees which are best suited to other environments or we change the environment around our tree by altering soil levels, laying turf, removing other plants and even over watering We build our homes near trees because we want to reap the benefits they have for us. Sometimes during building we cut roots to lay slabs. We change the surface of the land to make it level and strip off vital topsoil. Over many years we have altered natural drainage and placed gutters and pipes to pour rain water into the ocean and not back into the land where it is so desperately needed. We use harsh fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides, we overgraze land. When we do these things our trees can't simply get up and leave. Young, healthy trees may adapt but older ones simply hurt. We can help our trees by making the environment as close as possible to ideal conditions. Unfortunately this is seldom possible or practical. For this reason healthy trees often require specialized care at least once a year.

There are several good reasons:

* We first deal with many tree problems after they have taken a number of years to develop. A one treatment solution, whilst often dealing with immediate concerns, seldom resolves the problem.

* We plant trees in environments that are seldom natural or conducive to good health. In fact, the environment is often quite hostile towards trees. We therefore need to supplement many things to help the trees grow their best.

* Often we forget that trees are living things and they are growing constantly all year round. We forget the influence of such things as extended dry periods, poor percolation rates and so on. In fact, if our trees were animals many of us would spend time at "Her Majesty's" for extended and repeated cruelty.